


Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

by dofensphinx



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bee Miraculous, Bee!Chloe, Car Accident mention, F/F, F/M, Fox Miraculous, Original Character(s), Trans woman Marinette, Unhealthy Relationships, adult au, autistic chloe, cancer mention, fox!alya - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-08-30 10:58:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8530393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dofensphinx/pseuds/dofensphinx
Summary: Chloé would prefer to be left alone for the rest of her days, not even being a superhero gives her the same thrill anymore. The only bright spot in her life is Ladybug even if she can't be with the love of her life the way she wants to be. But when someone from her past comes back into her life and a new villain is attempting to take over Pairs, Chloe will have to put aside her own demons and maybe some of her dreams will come true.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Some of you might have read this first part before. I apologize for that, I had a previous work that I used with this starting and I just... wanted to rework it.

“These are her effects, what we could recover. Her phone was destroyed. I’m sorry”, the nurse handed him the tiny pile of things. A ring, her wallet. Her clothes had been destroyed in the crash, there was no point in him getting those. At the same time, he wanted them, for some stupid reason like he could hang on to every part of her that he could, “Huh…”

“Is there a problem?” He took the pile, his fingers curling around her ring, the metal clicking against his own. She should have been wearing it still, it was hers. Till death due them part. But he supposed that all the equipment couldn’t have metal in it.

The nurse shook her head, brushing a hand over her face, “No no, I just could have sworn that there was a pair of earrings in there too. But I must have been confused, we’ve had so many people in and out today…”

“She…I don’t know if she wore earrings”, he admitted, it wasn’t the sort of thing that he really thought about. It was stupid, but he honestly couldn’t remember. It upset him, that it had only been a few hours and now seemingly his brain couldn’t remember everything about her, “If… if you find them you can call me please”

“Of course sir, are you going to be alright? I know all of this must be a terrible shock to your system”, the nurse offered a gentle smile, “We want to help, not just your fiancée but you as well”

He nodded, not really understanding her words. They should have been focusing on her, saving her life. There was nothing wrong with him, “Thank you. I suppose that I won’t be able to visit her for a few days”

“Yes, she’ll be recovering from surgery, but in the next few days.  
Someone will call you if her condition changes…”

“Not that you’re expecting that”, he said, not a hint of emotion in his words, or in his eyes as he stared past her.

The nurse attempted a comforting smile, “Miracles happen every day, there’s no reason to assume the worst. The first couple days are the most important. You can’t give up hope”

“…I won’t”, he nodded, sliding the few possessions that he had received into his pocket, “Thank you”

Neither of them noticed the older man standing just down the hall from them despite his loud Hawaiian shirt. He turned a small black box over in his hands, giving the man who was leaving a sad look as he stood there.

“I’m sorry”, the old man said, looking in the window of the hospital room. He could see the pale form of the girl in there, her head bandaged, “I’m so very sorry my dear”


	2. Chapter 2

Despite what people might have thought, Chloe was not a stupid girl. She knew more of what was going on in her life and Paris then anyone would have guessed. She knew that she treated Sabrina badly sometimes, but at the same time she understood that Sabrina needed her. She knew that Marinette belonged with Adrien because she could actually love him. She understood that her father wasn’t a good person and that instead of love he gave her, her every demand.

And now she understood that her father was a lot worse then she had realized. The Akuma in the lobby, a man with a giant pencil he was using to literally erase people out of reality, was shouting accusations that normally she would have dismissed. But she knew the Akuma, a reporter who had been around just a few days earlier asking about the financials of the hotel and her father’s money in general. Apparently there was some sort of issue with the accounting of a charity her father ran.

He had asked her, apparently hoping that she would drop some dirt on her father. Chloe hadn’t had anything to say, but the questions had caused a pit in her stomach. Fear and confusion swirling around. Honestly, it had sounded so accurate, she knew her father she knew what he would do for money, especially if he was having some sort of issue in that regard.

So Chloe had done her own research, planning on confronting her father about it. Everything had been true, there were a lot of issues in her father’s accounting, even in her accounts. The reporter had done his own research and knew what he was talking about.

Before she could ask her father about the whole thing, the reporter (Blaise or Brice or something) had gotten to him first. Andre Bourgeois was of the opinion that he could deny and intimidate anyone into doing whatever he wanted. So Blaise had been thrown out of the hotel, while her father threatened if he ever returned that Blaise would be arrested for trespassing.

Hawkmoth had gotten to him before her father could have and now Andre was up against a wall with a man waving a pencil in his face.

“Admit it! Admit that you stole the money”, The Editor screamed, the point of his pencil against the Mayor’s throat, “I have all of the evidence all you have to do is confess! Or you’ll be erased from reality forever!”

Ladybug and Chat Noir weren’t there yet, probably dealing with the little stick men that the Easer had drawn. They were only 2D creatures but from what she had seen they were strong enough to take down the hotel’s security guards.

There was more then one person filming, all of the smart phones pointed straight at her father. No one moved to help. She wasn’t surprised, no one wanted to risk their lives just for the Mayor. Everyone knew the only reason that he had continued to be elected was dirty politics, not because the people of Paris loved him.

Even Chloe didn’t move to help him, her stomach still twisted into knots at the thoughts of what her father had done. The charity was for Akuma victims. For counselling or anything that they needed. She was an Akuma victim. He had stolen money form a charity that helped people like her. She doubted that he had even taken a second to think about what that would do to her, to the people that she went to school with. He never really thought about anyone but himself and what made him look good.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about— “, Andre started to say before the point of the pencil was shoved right against his throat, drawing just the tiniest drop of blood, “Fine! Fine! I did it, I stole the money is that what you wanted to hear?”

She knew that her father was only saying that expecting to be able to get out of it later, no one believes Akuma victims after all. She tightened her grip on the railing, feeling her knuckles starting to turn white. He didn’t even care. Not even enough to tell the truth to save himself.

Ladybug and Chat Noir burst through the front door, baton and yo-yo swinging. Andre shut up at once, realizing that he was saved. The Editor spun around, his pencil pointed at Ladybug. She swung her yo-yo attempting to catch the pencil in the string. Instead, the Editor rolled to the right, the yo-yo smashing into the wall instead. Chloe took a step down, wanting to do something to help, anything because this was her father’s fault. He was the cause behind all of this.

The Editor’s pencil moved in the air, writing out words as fast as he could. As he finished writing the pencil shifted, becoming a huge launcher of some kind that the Editor lifted on to his shoulder.  
As much of a cliché as it was, Chloe could have sworn that the world moved in slow motion. The Editor’s finger twitched on the trigger, the aim squarely at Ladybug’s head, the least protected part of her body. Chloe was already half way down the stairs and she nearly tripped over herself trying to get the rest of the way down. It was stupid probably, Ladybug had a better chance of surviving then she did. But if Ladybug was knocked out, she couldn’t use Miraculous Ladybug and fix everything. 

‘Besides’, Chloe thought as she jumped in front of Ladybug just as the gun fired sending a bright red projectile at them, ‘I’m expendable. She isn’t’.

*  
“Amber!”

Chloe snapped out of her thoughts, looking up at her boss from behind her sunglasses. He was standing over her one eyebrow raised in a silent question.

“What?” She slid her fingers across the table to grasp her tablet as if it would tell her what he wanted. 

“I knew you weren’t listening”, Johnathan grumbled, pulling back from her so that he was lording over her anymore, “I was asking what you thought about the new plan?”

“I told you already that it’s fine”, She flicked her fingers over the tablet, pulling up the proposal again. It was for some app that she was supposed to be programing, some sort of game that was going to make their client so much money, “I can do it, and it will work. That’s all I’ve got to say about it”

Abel snorted from his place across from her, “Maybe if you stopped wearing sun glasses everywhere we’d know when you were sleeping in meetings Miel”

Amber Miel, her fake name. It was easier to pretend to be someone else then be Chloe Bourgeois currently. It might have been six years since her father had been forced to resign and fled the country but too many people still remembered and wanted to talk about it. Amber was a computer programmer with no parents in legal trouble. Chloe Bourgeois was a bitch with daddy problems.

Chloe touched her sun glasses for a moment before setting her mouth into her best mean girl sneer, she hadn’t lost it yet, “That’s fantastic then I’ll be squinting the whole meeting. I can’t see in lights this bright asshole”, having something explode right in her face had done wonders for her eyesight, leaving her blind in bright lights. 

Johnathan put his head down on the table, shaking his head, “Abel shut up. Amber has eye problems, and she’s still doing better than you. Amber when can you have your part done?”

“Within the next week, that’s before the deadline I’m sure?” She knew it was but she still felt the need to ask, to rub it in Abel’s face that she could get it done before him, “That’s if everything goes right of course”  
“Of course,” Johnathan repeated, his fingers drumming on the table.  
Chloe forced her face to go slack, she could just feel the drumming inside her head, making her want to scream. It was one of Johnathan’s worst habits, and it just grated on her last nerve. Not that she really had many nerves left after dealing with Abel.

“Amber you can go grab some coffee, I need to talk to Abel about a few things. Come back in ten minutes and I’ll see if we still need you alright?” his fingers lifted off of the desk, giving Chloe some semblance of relief.

“Thank you”, she would have rather been allowed to go home, where it was dark and the only noise was her computer’s hum. But of course she had to stay, at least for a little while longer. Get the notes, go home, do the job, get paid. There was comforting pattern to her life and that’s how she liked it. Though it would have been easier if someone would agree to tele-conferencing, but despite the fact that Johnathan was her boss at this giant tech company, he thought that face to face was best.  
The break room was quiet, and she was alone. Or mainly alone.

Honni popped out of Chloe’s suit pocket, watching as she started up the coffee machine, “Are you, alright Sweetie?”

Chloe shrugged, watching the coffee drip into the pot, “Abel’s a jackass. And It’s too bright in here. I think I’m getting a headache”

“We can go to that café you like after! Have decent coffee, browse a bit online, judge everyone’s clothes”

She smiled at that, Honni knew what would make her feel better. They had been together for six years, long enough that they had knew almost everything about each other, “Sounds good”

“Is there fresh coffee?” someone else came into the break room, looking at the pot, “Thank god”

Chloe nodded, crossing her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall, attempting to get as far away from the other person as she could. She didn’t like to socialize, especially not at work. She worked from home, that’s how she liked it. No coworkers to bug her, just Honni and her computer. 

“Chloe?” 

She froze, turning as slowly as she could so it wouldn’t appear as though she was shocked by the name, “I’m…sorry?” She whispered, as she attempted to see who the other person was. It took a moment, as he had grown a lot taller and when she had seen him before he had been a clean shaven bit of a dork. Now he was sporting a bit of five o’clock shadow, towering over her. Max. Kim’s Max. From school, “Sorry you must have me confused with someone else. I’m Amber”

“Ah sorry”, he smiled slightly though she could tell that he didn’t really believe her, “You just look like someone I went to school with. She kind of disappeared in High School, had a really hard time with her dad and stuff. I guess I just wanted to talk to her, if you had been her. See how she’s doing”

Chloe peeked over her sunglasses, watching the slight tinkle in Max’s eye, “I’m…sure she’s fine”, she murmured, grabbing the coffee pot. She stood there for a moment with it, realizing that she didn’t have a mug.  
Max reached into the cupboard, pulling out two for them, “Do you mind pouring me some too?”

She nodded, tipping the pot so that the coffee flowed into the two mugs when she was done she put it back in the machine, “How’s Kim?” She asked taking the mug, deciding that keeping up the façade that she wasn’t Chloe was silly.

“Good. We’re getting married in the spring, we would have invited you but you don’t seem to exist anymore”, he took a sip of his coffee, and she could see the plain silver ring glinting off of his hand.

She snorted, “Why would you want to invite me? I was horrible to both of you, remember Dark Cupid?”

Max’s ring clinked against the mug, “You were when we were younger, by the time everything happened with your dad you weren’t that bad… Yeah you’re a bitch Chloe, but you could use that bitchiness for good. I know at least once someone made some shitty comments about me being gay and you tore them a new one”

Chloe shrugged, knowing that it had happened more then once. But she wasn’t about to seem like she was trying to convince him she was a good person, “Well you know, as a lesbian”, she shrugged again, slightly amused with how his eyes widened at her comment.

“Okay I mean I know there were rumors about you and Sabrina, plus your crush on Ladybug but I never expect you to actually say it out loud”

Chloe wished she was wearing a sweater instead of her yellow blazer so that she could sink into her clothes and disappear, “Sabrina and I were never dating. I don’t even think she really liked me that much”, her cheeks flushed red at the mention of Ladybug, because that was one thing that she couldn’t deny. There was something about the tight red suit and that blinding shy smile…

“I mean I don’t know, I thought that Marinette and Adrien would be married by now and well…”, Max frowned slightly, taking a drink of his coffee, “You heard about that I assume? I mean I know it was after you left but”

“I heard”

The news had come out that Gabriel Agreste was dying of cancer, and Adrien was crushed. Chloe was still heading away from the public, outside of Paris was her grandmother. As much as she had wished she could have comforted him she was still raw from her own issues. The next news to come out had been that Adrien had broken up with his girlfriend of two years, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Chloe had could only imagine what had happened there, as she still hadn’t been talking to him. By the time she had come back to Paris all of it had been over for months and she just couldn’t bring herself to talk to Adrien.

“He’s doing good. I’m sure that he’d love to hear from you. Or Chloe, if you’re still Amber”, Max mentioned, raising an eyebrow at her.   
Chloe mumbled to herself, knowing that Max was right and she should attempt to connect with people form her past life, but it was hard. Hard to go back to being Chloe when Amber was so much easier when people didn’t expect the same things about Amber that they did about Chloe. Amber was safe, Chloe was scary.

“If you want to send me an invitation to the wedding, this is my info”, she pulled a business card out of her blazer pocket, holding it out for Max to take, “Or… anything. It was nice to see you again Max”, she had to admit that it was nice to see him. Max was okay, they had never been really enemies or friends, the only connection they had was that his fiancé had had a crush on her for years. 

“I’ll think about it”, he smiled though, showing that he was really kidding about the whole thing, “I hope really hope you are doing better, you didn’t deserve what happened to you Chloe. None of it. I mean that”  
She nodded, suddenly finding herself unable to speak. She was tired, drained and tired. There was just too much going on, too much piled on to herself. She was really hoping that Johnathan didn’t need her for anything else because she needed to sleep. For about a week or two until her head stopped exploding and ever little sound was like needles into her skin.

Max reached out going to touch her shoulder but pulled back when Chloe flinched. His hand hung in the air for a moment before it dropped to his side, “I’ll see you later Ch—Amber, don’t be a stranger okay?”

*  
While home was the ideal, she knew that sometimes she needed social interaction and Honni was right that people watching did make her feel better. She popped open her laptop, pulling up the fashion forum she had been on since high school. Her original account was long gone, leaving only honnibug behind. A whole new identity even online.  
She had squeezed herself into the corner near a window so she could still see out but had made a little wall around herself with her bag. Blocking her table form view allowed Honni to sit in front of her watching the screen without being seen. 

“Honey cakes and coffee?” the waitress set the dish and cup down beside Chloe’s bag, “Is there anything else I can get you? Um like…”  
Chloe barely looked up at the girl, already shuffling through the new posts, “No I think that’s all thank you”

“I mean…you come in here all the time, and I was just wondering if maybe I could see you outside of here sometime?” the waitress’ voice dropped ever so slightly, in an attempt to sound sultrier.

“I have a routine, I come here after work and I people watch. I also enjoy the coffee”, Chloe was glad that she was still wearing her sunglasses so that the waitress (Amy?) couldn’t see her eyes widen. She had never considered that coming to the same café almost every day could be seen as anything but her enjoying their food. She might have been able to say she was a lesbian to Max, but she didn’t date. Dating would involve either lying about who she was or telling the truth. Neither option really appealed to her, “I’m sorry but I’m just not interested”

The waitress went stiff beside the table, her back rigid as she looked down at Chloe. It took her a moment to respond but when she did it was in a clipped tone, “Oh. Okay. Enjoy your food I guess”, she turned on her heel, the clicking of her heels echoing through the café.

“Are you alright Chloe?” Honni murmured, watching as her chosen put the honey cakes in front of her, “You should try to meet some people, connect or something. It’s not healthy to be alone all of the time”

“Fine”, Chloe didn’t respond to the rest of Honni’s comment, scrolling through a thread that she had been following. An up incoming designer was posting some of her work, and Chloe really enjoyed looking through them. Of course that didn’t mean she didn’t have her own notes about what could be changed, but there were only minor things. 

Whoever Polkadotchat was she had a lot of amazing ideas. It was tempting more then once to ask if Polkadot did commissions to see if she could get a dress. That wasn’t something that she did anymore though, there wasn’t anywhere for her to wear a custom dress.

A custom hoodie maybe.

With antenna and bee wings.

She snorted to herself, just skimming over the posts looking to see if Polkadot had put anything new up in the last few days. Her eyes jumped over posts asking if Polkadot was the model and if those were her real tits, like really. Finally, her eyes settled on the newest post.  
Pokadotchat posted:

‘Does anyone know any good website designers? I’m trying to set up an online portfolio, and a place to take commissions, but I’m totally failing at it so far. Send help’

Chloe tapped her fingers on the table, her teeth sinking into her lip as she stared at the screen. She could do that; she could help out someone that she had been admiring for quite a few years. But she hardly ever worked directly with clients anymore, out of a desire to just hide form humanity. At the same time Honni had told her that she should try and interact with people more just a few minutes ago.

“You should do it”, Honni piped up, “And if you feel bad for charging the girl whose clothes you fell in love with you can always just offer to do it for free. Or whatever, I know you aren’t a fan of charity and neither am I. If you do something you should get paid for it”

Chloe stared at the screen, reading over the post again like she could find some hidden message in them. Like ‘Chloe I need your help’, as if that could ever happen. It was stupid how hard it was to send a simple message, just a ‘yes I can help you’. It parts it was against her nature, the desire to help someone just to help them. The old her would have scoffed at the very idea of helping someone for no reason.

At the same time… her hand drifted to her collarbone, just below her collar. She could feel the slightly raised area of skin where she had been burned almost six years ago, really the first time she had helped someone.

Not that she hadn’t had her own reasons for that too.

She put her head on the table, her sun glasses knocking on the wood as she went. Honni scooted over ever so slightly, stroking Chloe’s short hair, “Are you alright? Your brain isn’t exploding is it? I need my chosen to be alive. I don’t think I can find someone with as much ambition as you in Paris”

Chloe let out a long groan, “Honni. Is it bad if I offer to do this for her because I think she’s hot? I mean I haven’t even seen her face”

“I mean are you asking me if it’s okay to help her just because you’re gay? I don’t think you’d be a superhero right now if you weren’t gay as hell”, Honni admitted, nuzzling into Chloe’s hair, “And this could be a good chance to get to know her better. I know you’ve talked to her a little bit, but you don’t even know her name”

“Are you trying to set me up or something?” Chloe muttered, lifting her head off of the table to look at the forum post again, “Do you really think I should do it?”

“I think a lot of things, that doesn’t mean you’ll listen to me. It would be nice if you would sometimes I mean but you know. I’m not your mother”

Chloe pushed her finger down onto Honni’s head, squishing the kwami down into the table, “No my mother doesn’t care nearly as much as you do”, she sat up, squaring her shoulders as she glared at the computer screen, “I’m going to do it”

“Yay!” Honni cheered, just a little bit too loud.

Several people turned their heads, looking to see what had made the noise. Chloe clasped her hands around Honni, grinning at the rest of the people in the café. They looked away, disinterested in her strange actions. Slowly Chloe released Honni, who went about at once smoothing her fluff down. 

“Sorry”, Chloe barely looked down at her kwami before she went back to the computer. She stared at the post for a moment longer before she clicked the private message button.

‘Hi, I know we haven’t really spoken but I can design a website for you. I have a lot of experience and can show you my work. You can contact me at my professional email, ambermeil@gmail.com. I love you work and I’d love to help you'

She hit the send button before she could rethink the whole thing, “Now…we wait”

Honni looked up at Chloe, who was currently staring at the computer screen, almost willing the email to appear, “You know it’s not just going to show up like that. She’s probably doing something. Like a normal human being. Because she’s not a weirdo like you”

“Honni I love you but I will put you in a gold cage and no one will ever hear form you again”, Chloe propped her head up on her hands with a sigh, “…am I really that weird?”

“Of course not. I love you Chloe”, Honni pulled herself onto the keyboard of the laptop, watching the screen as well. Despite what she was saying, she was very excited to see what Pokadots said about Chloe’s proposal.   
All of a sudden the email notification pinged. Chloe nearly dove for the keyboard, moving quickly to pull the new email up. The subject line read, ‘About your commission offer’. She opened it up, skimming it email.

‘Hi Amber, thank you for your offer. I don’t know how much I can pay you which I know sounds horrible, but I will try to get together as much as I can. Like I said I’d like a portfolio section, and then maybe a page where people can give me commission info. Something easy to use and update for a scatterbrained designer. I suppose you need to know more, but I’d like to know more about your rates and stuff first. 

Thanks,  
Marinette Dupain-Cheng’

 

“What”, Chloe couldn’t manage more of a thought then that.

Marinette. It was Marinette. Pigtails and Adrien loving Marinette.

 

Fucking Marinette.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry guys that it took so long to get out there was a lot of shit going on. Two surgeries for an ingrown toe nail, infections and all sorts of gross stuff.

Two days. It had been two days since Marinette had sent a message asking for help setting up her website. Honestly, she didn’t know what was going on in Amber’s life, but it was sort of distressing that she hadn’t gotten an email back yet. It was silly but on some level, she was concerned that she had offended Amber somehow. The rational part of her brain told her that Amber had contacted her in the first place, there was no way that Marinette had insulted her by simply sending an email. Not that that stopped her from staring at the screen like she could will the email into existence.

“Marinette. You’re obsessing”, Alya shoved Marinette’s chair with her foot, causing the chair to roll across the floor almost into the wall, “If she’s a computer programmer or something, then she probably has like a shit ton of stuff going on. Stop. Freaking. Out”

“Fine”, Marinette leant her head back against the wall, her chair almost tipping over before she caught herself, “…are you going to Max and Kim’s pre-wedding party?”

“Which one?”

Kim and Max had decided to have two parties, where both of them would be attending. Instead of calling them bachelor parties since Max had gone on a slight rant about how neither of them was technically bachelors because they had been together for years. Kim had wisely chosen not to argue with his fiancée, and so they were pre-wedding parties instead.

“Neither. I mean I don’t know if I’m going to the ice skating party because you know”, Marinette made a gesture with her hand.

“The fact that you can barely stand up when you’re not on the ice?” Alya asked with a slight smirk, “I mean you have gotten better in the last couple years with not falling over when you get nervous. I mean you dated Adrien, and you could actually talk to him. Among other things”, Alya wiggled her eyebrows at Marinette.

“Oh shut up”, Marinette got out of her chair, grasping it by the back and shoving it towards Alya, “We never got that far. I’m not…”, she wiggled her hands a little bit, “It’s weird. He knows but at the same time I just… ugh”

“You’re gorgeous Marinette, I’ve seen you without clothes on and you look fantastic”, Alya grabbed the chair, shoving it away from herself, “Adrien loved, he loves you. He wouldn’t care what’s going on”

She shrugged, “He might have thought that while we were dating but once he saw everything, he might want a real—“

Alya grasped a pillow from beside her on the couch, throwing it at Marinette’s face to make her stop talking, “Shut up. Do not even use that phrase, you are most definitely a real girl. Or do I need to come over there and hit you with the pillow hard enough to knock some sense into you”

Marinette grasped the pillow, squeezing it against her stomach, “Okay”, she smiled slightly her hands curled into fists, “So are you going to the parties?” She was eager to turn the conversation away from her self-esteem and gender issues.

“To the club at least. It would be better if I could drag Nino with me so that I could keep any gross jackasses off of me, but he’s in”, Alya stopped, having to think for a moment about just where Nino was currently, “Not Europe. I know that much, but he’s been moving around so  
much lately for his tour that trying to find him is hard”

“If you need a date I can talk to Adrien, he’d love to go with you. He thinks you’re cuteeee”, Marinette snickered, twirling in a circle, “Come on He has to go anyways”

Alya rolled her eyes, “Marinette I am not going to date your ex-boyfriend. Besides I’m sure he has more than enough to worry about without me trying to get all up on him like some sort of groupie. I prefer to go after guys who might actually want to date me”

“I’m telling you, he likes you Alya”, Marinette grasped the arm of the couch, leaning over until she was almost face to face with Alya, “Come on! When have I ever lied to you?”

Alya raised her eyebrow, grasping Marinette by her shoulders, “Marinette. You are my best friend and I love you like the sisters I already have too many of, but you are completely ridiculous  
if you think that I could ever date Adrien”

She stuck out her bottom lip, her eyes widening, “Please Alya, I’ll be your best friend. Just one night, I just want you to try it. He’s … I think he needs someone like you, to put everything in perspective for him. He thinks the world is falling down around his ears and I can’t reach him…  
I think you could make him happy… if you would try”

“…Seriously the puppy dog eyes? Is that what we’re doing right now? In addition to trying to set me up with your ex-boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend’s best friend. You are being completely silly right now”, Alya pursed her lips for a moment, “I’ll go with him to the party. That’s all I’m not promising that I’m going to marry him or that I’m even going to date him, but I will try to be his friend”

Marinette let out an excited squeal throwing her arms around Alya’s neck, tackling the other girl into the couch. Alya allowed herself to go limp as she fell backwards, knowing by now it was easiest just to go along with Marinette’s antics, “Thank you Thank you!” she cried, pressing a kiss to Alya’s cheek, “You are the best friend that anyone could ever have, the best best best friend in the whole goddamn world”

“Yeah yeah well remember that next time I need a favour from you. Like a new dress for Max and Kim’s wedding maybe…”

“Like I wasn’t already making you one, come on! I know you”, Marinette giggled, rolling off of Alya and onto the floor with a slight thump. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, “You’d probably get a deadline or something and forget that you wanted a new dress. Then you’d wear something you’ve had forever and still look fantastic but I would feel bad so yes. You’re getting a dress. An amazing dress”

Alya turned her head so that her hair was flowing over the side of the couch as she looked down at Marinette, “Are you sure that you and Adrien aren’t getting back together? You were happy…. Once upon a time”

Marinette turned on her side, pulling her legs against her stomach, “Once. We were happy once, and I don’t think it’s worth it to try again. We’ll just make each other completely miserable again”, she sighed, rolling over onto her stomach, “Can we just…not about Adrien anymore”

“Of course sweetie. Whatever you want”

*Five Years Ago*

“Chat?” Ladybug dropped onto the rooftop, watching the back of her partner. His ear barely twitched in acknowledgement of her, “Kitty what’s wrong? I haven’t heard from you all day”, she hadn’t been able to get him on his cell phone and there had been no response on his communicator. The only reason she had found him was because her yo-yo allowed her to track him down. If she hadn’t been so concerned about him, she might have left him alone. But for Adrien not to respond at all was unusual and scary.

“Sorry”, he mumbled, his shoulders hunching forward, “Sorry”

She could hear something in his voice, hoarse and close to tears. Adrien barely cried, and Chat never did. The last time she had seen tears had been after Chloe’s accident so she knew that something wasn’t right. She could read her partner, practically feel his emotions rolling off of him even when they were out of costume.

Ladybug knelt behind Chat, her hands just resting lightly on his back. His whole body was shaking, his breath coming out in shallow breaths, “Please tell me, what’s wrong? I just want to help you, you know that”

“He’s going to die”, Chat Noir wheezed out, his head curling into his chest, his fists tight against his sides, “What… what good is this goddamn ring if he’s just going to die?” he flung his hand  
out, the silver ring glinting in the moonlight.

“Who? Adrien who?” She would never use his real name in public while they were in costume but at this point, it didn’t seem that he was responding well to his other name, “Who's going to die?”

Chat spun around, nearly knocking her onto her back, “My father!” Ladybug scooted back slightly, watching the aggressive spark in Chat’s bright green eyes. His pupils were near slits his hands in front of him almost like he was choking an invisible person in front of him, “My father is going to die and even with all of this magic…”, he stared at his ring again, “I can’t do anything”, his hands dropped, his shoulders going slack.

The tears started coming, slipping over his mask, tear tracks down his face. Ladybug wrapped her arms around Chat’s neck, pulling him close against her, her hand tangled in his hair, “I’m…  
I’m so very sorry Adrien”, she couldn’t think of anything else to say, no matter how cliché the whole thing  
was. His sobs swirled around in her ears, the only noise that she could hear now.

“It… it hurts so bad”, he whimpered, “What am I going to do Mari? What…”, he sniffled, his face buried into her shoulder. Normally the scent of his girlfriend soothed him, flora mixed with flour and sugar, the sweetest scent that he had ever smelt. Now it didn’t, it just made his stomach roll. All that he could think was that his father was dying, and Marinette wasn’t but she could be. There was nothing to say that in their line of work she wouldn’t be dead tomorrow. His mama was already gone, he had almost lost Chloe, and he was going to lose his papa too. 

If Marinette left. If Marinette died. Then he didn’t know what he would do with himself.  
So he squeezed her tight, pressing her against himself as if he could keep her there with just his arms. It was enough for the moment, but he was fighting not to break down right there on the roof. He just wanted to go back to yesterday when everything was normal and he didn’t feel like the world was falling out from underneath him.

So he clung to the only solid thing that he had right now, the only thing that he could see in front of him.

“Don’t… don’t leave me”, he whispered, “Just… hold me for a little while please Marinette. Just don’t leave me”

Ladybug’s hand stroked down Chat’s back in a vain attempt to calm him down. She had a feeling that nothing she was doing was going to help very much, but it was all that she had right now. She didn’t have the words, or some sort of magic power to make all of the pain just disappear in an instance. She was suddenly so aware of how young and powerless she really was. She could save the city, fight monsters, but she couldn’t even find the right words to give her boyfriend any sort of peace.

Maybe Tikki would have had the right words, but Marinette wasn’t a goddess. She was a teenager holding a boy with a broken heart. Miraculous Ladybug could fix a lot of things, it could almost bring back the dead. But this wasn’t caused by an akuma, this was nature. Terrible powerful nature bringing down her wrath too soon on one man.

On so many men. Gabriel wasn’t the first, and he wouldn’t be the last. But at the moment this case was the one that was affecting them.

Marinette knew one thing for sure, that life was completely shit.

*

Ladybug jumped, her legs folding beneath her as she landed. Normally there would have been pain, but thanks to Tikki’s magic, she barely felt a jolt as her feet connected with the roof. It felt like there was a storm in her head, too much going on at once. The possibility that Adrien would be angry at her for trying to set him up, the possibility that he would be angry at Alya and that she had just fucked everything up by trying to make it better.  
But with the cool air in her lungs she maybe felt a little bit better…

Then, “ARRRGGGHHH”, she turned around in a circle her hands shoved into her hair as she pulled. It was not better, it wouldn’t be better until she knew for sure Adrien didn’t hate her. She popped open her yo-yo, hoping that maybe the little green cat paw would be flashing to show her where Chat Noir was. If he was around.

Instead there was a Bee, yellow and blinking, like an eye taunting her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Queen Bee, she did, the blond girl was a wonderful addition to the team. It’s just that she didn’t want to talk to Bee right now. She wanted Chat. Her original partner, for once. Still her finger hovered over the icon for Bee, debating if she wanted someone bad enough to spill her guts to Queen Bee.

In the end the desire for someone, someone that understood the huge chunk of her life that was the Miraculous, won out and her finger tapped the icon. With a bloop bright blue eyes and gold hair filled her screen. Queen Bee pulled back so that her full face was visible and Ladybug felt her heart jump. Despite her insistence to herself that she was working on Marinette right now, and her business, Queen Bee did make …butterflies? Or rather bees float in her stomach. With her short blond hair, eyes as blue as the sky and plump pink lips, Ladybug couldn’t help but feel attracted. Add in the fact that Queen Bee was smart, capable and strong as hell to the point of being able to lift Ladybug in her arms, and honestly she was just smitten. But not enough to try and start something. She had tried that with Chat and it had just gone…fabulously.

As evidenced by the fact she was calling Bee rather than her ex-boyfriend and currently longest running partner.

“Are you okay Bug?” Queen Bee’s brows wrinkled, her lips pursing with concern, “You look upset and you have those dark circles under your eyes. And yes your mask doesn’t cover those  
Sweetheart, now talk”

“Can we meet somewhere? Like somewhere close”, she could feel the stress climbing up her throat, like a ball of fear and terror.

“I’ll come to you”, Bee nodded, her miraculous clip bouncing gently as she did so, “Stay alright?”

“Yeah”

*

It only took Bee a few minutes to reach her, thanks to a combination of the tracking magic in her top and the wings that pushed through the material of her suit. At first Ladybug had thought that they were part of her suit, but closer inspection revealed that in fact they were coming through tiny little slits in the suit. The wings were actually fused to Bee’s skin, part of her body. Ladybug was tempted to ask if they were still there when she was human, but that felt a little personal.

Bee landed on the roof, her wings tucking into her suit so that they were protected, “I brought coffee”, She held up the tray, two steaming cups of coffee in the cups, “Did you know that that you are literally above a coffee shop?”

“Do I want to know how you could coffee dressed like that?” Ladybug sighed, reaching out for her coffee. She probably didn’t need to be anymore wired, but the coffee smelled so good and she needed to feel good for a few minutes.

“I have a tab, no pockets on this thing you know”, she shrugged basically falling to the ground her coffee clutched in her hand, “People do like us you know”, she leaned a shoulder against Ladybug, her wings fluttering for a moment as she did so, “Now speak and be heard”

“I tried to set my ex up with my friend but I didn’t ask my ex first and he’s been through a really horrible couple of years so now he’s probably gonna hate me and I don’t know what to do anymore”,  
Ladybug let all of it pour out of her, everything that she had stuffed in her head since that stupid comment to Alya, “And on top of that I just really want to get clothes online and sold but I don’t have any time because I’m too busy worrying about everyone else”

Bee nodded, “You need to calm down for a second. Just like one second and breath. I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is”, she set her hand on Ladybug’s head, her fingers drawing gentle circles in the other girl’s hair, “Your friends love you Ladybug”, she whispered, denying herself the desire to add that she loved Ladybug as well.

“Thank you Honey Bee”, Ladybug pressed a kiss against Bee’s cheek, a quick brush of the lips, 

“You helped a lot. Even if I did sound a little bit looney there”

“You never sound looney to me Ladybug”, Bee said, her face drifting just a tiny bit closer to Ladybug’s, “You always…”, just as she was sure they were going to kiss, two loud beeping noises filled the air.

 

With a groan, Bee popped open her top revealing the little screen inside. Ladybug did the same thing with her yo-yo and on both screens was a news report. A man in a blue and white suit with hair that appeared to be made of ice was standing in the middle of a hurricane of snow and ice. The whole street around him was covered in ice turning it into a skating rink.

“Ugh”, Bee tilted her head back, shutting her eyes as if she could wish away the new report, “I guess we should be dealing with that….”

“Yep”, Ladybug grinned, feeling much better after their conversation. She hopped to her feet, bouncing on her toes with excitement.

*

Ladybug slide across the slick plane of ice that covered the street, just barely grabbing the street light before she went by. Bee hovered a few inches above the ice, her mouth set in a thin line as they watched the current source of mayhem in the city. A man dressed in white and blue, the very tips of his hair frozen as ice and snow blasted from his hands.

“…this isn’t good”, Bee muttered, her wings fluttering faster against her back, “Are you okay?”

Ladybug clutched her arms around herself, shivering against the cold that even through her suit was creeping in. Ladybugs didn’t do well in the cold, and she was starting to feel the affects, 

“We need to finish this soon, please”

Bee nodded, her fingers tapping against her leg with more energy than Ladybug had ever seen her with, she was practically buzzing, “Do you think we need lucky charm? Or should we just run into it”

“I think I’ve got an idea”, she directed Queen Bee in a few simple steps, of just what they were going to do. After a few years of doing this, she had gotten pretty good at coming up with spur of the moment plans, taking into account the different skills of her team.

*

“Hey ice dick!” Bee fluttered in front of the snowman, twitching left and right to avoid the hail that was spewing out of the dome, “Your aim sucks! And so does your ice, it’s not even that cold out here!”

The man growled and his hands went up as if he was a boxer, a clump of ice flying straight towards Queen Bee.

For a moment, Ladybug saw another blond girl in Bee’s place, a long blond ponytail flying out behind her as she jumped in the way of a projectile.

*

 

“CHLOE!” she screamed, watching the blonde’s body hit the floor most of her top burned away in the explosion. 

Everyone stared at the body in front of them, injuries were common especially when akuma had one target in mind, but this… this was horror. Ladybug felt the smell of burning flesh assault her nose, the sound of sizzling as Chloe’s flesh popped and blistered. She was supposed to protect everyone, not Chloe, not any civilian. No one was supposed to get hurt like this, what kind of hero was she if she let Chloe die to save her?

The Editor’s pencil dropped to the ground with an audible thump, seemingly unable to believe what he had done. Hawkmoths control didn’t seem to exist in that moment, there was just silence at the horror of what had occurred.

What kind of hero would she be if she let Chloe’s sacrifice be in vain? She tossed her yo-yo into the air and yelled, “Miraculous Ladybug!” a red and black spotted towel appeared in her hands, cold even through the suit, “Chat get the hat!”

Chat nodded, his lips pressed together in a thin white line. He darted forward, taking advantage of the fact the Editor was now scrambling to pick up his pencil. Chat Noir’s cataclysm flared to life, just barely scraping the hat with his claw. The black butterfly fluttered out of the hat, the Editor falling to the ground.

Ladybug pressed the towel against Chloe’s burn, hoping to help a little bit until she could fix everything. She winced at the noise that came out of Chloe’s mouth, a gentle moan like there was barely any breath in her lungs. 

Watching the butterfly she didn’t want to remove her hand from Chloe’s chest, but she knew that she had to. With tears in her eyes, she caught the butterfly, half heartedly whispering, “Bye bye little butterfly”.

She grabbed the towel off of Chloe’s chest, wincing at the red and blistered skin. Ladybug tossed the towel into the air, and yelled with possibly more force than she ever had, “Miraculous Ladybug!” as if throwing all of her will behind the phrase would heal Chloe better.

The ladybugs swirled around them, ghosting across her cheeks brushing the tears away. They wrapped Chloe in a cocoon lifting her off of the ground as they moved around her faster and faster. For a moment Ladybug was afraid that they wouldn’t stop, that even her magic wasn’t strong enough to heal Chloe.

Finally the ladybugs disappeared, leaving Chloe on the floor, still pale with bright red burns on her chest, but not near death as she had seemed before. Ladybug fell to her knees, touching Chloe’s hair and recoiling when she felt wet. There was blood on the floor. Blood from Chloe.

She wasn’t a god, and she couldn’t fix everything, but hopefully she had done enough.

Please gods, kwami and other wise, please let her have done enough.

*

Bee darted upwards, the clump of ice flying past her. Ladybug let out a sigh of relief, she should have known that Bee could take care of herself, this was nothing like the other time. There would never be another time like that, she wouldn’t let it happen again.

Not to her partners, and not to her friends.

She tossed her yo-yo in the air, yelling “Lucky Charm”, when her item landed in her hands, she did have to ask, “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this wasn't actually planned, so you know. Shit happens. A lot of lore. Chloe's story slowly coming out.

A fire hose was sitting in her hands, red with black spots, but none the less a fire hose. A freaking fire hose. Over the years she had gotten used to the odd things that her magic would send to assist, but in this case, even she was a bit confused. Ladybug bit her lip, a habit that she was supposed to be giving up. Her eyes darted from Queen Bee, still distracting the Akuma, to a fire hydrant, to the Akuma in-between. Her mouth curled up into a smirk as she started to get an idea.

Bee was starting to feel the effects of the cold, not in the same way that ladybug did with lethargy but more in the way she felt when she was having a sensory overload. Her heart was pounding too fast, and her limbs felt like they were too heavy, too much. She was going to start puking if they didn’t finish soon.

Ladybug’s voice came over their coms, clear voice cutting through her nerves, “I need you”

Even as an adult that phrase coming out of her hero’s mouth made her heart flutter. Bee knew that Ladybug meant as a teammate, not in any sort of romantic sense but still…it was nice to dream, to hold onto that phrase with the hope that it would be said and mean something more.

The plan was simple enough, and with no Akuma to worry about, they didn’t have to think about getting his object.

Queen Bee landed on the ground, takin a deep breath she knew that they only had a few minutes to pull this off or Ladybug was going to have to recharge. “Busy Bee”, she stated, activating her power. Her whole body began to vibrate until she was nothing more than a whirlwind of light and bees. Originally Busy bee had just given her slightly increased speed, but with enough work, she had been able to make herself move so fast that she was just a blur. The side effect is that she wanted to puke for most of the time she was move. 

For a moment, it seemed like the magician wouldn’t attack, too distracted with her transformation. But he quickly recovered, firing faster in an attempt to keep up with her. Bee moved so fast that she appeared to be coming in and out of view, dodging his projectiles faster than he could fire them.

Ladybug tossed the end of her firehose over her shoulder and pushed across the ice, the bottoms of her suit becoming as slick as the ice. The only problem was once she started, she wasn’t sure that she would be able to stop. She tilted her weight, sliding herself into the fire hydrant. She grasped the valve with both hands, using all of her strength to turn it. The cold had soaked into the metal and even through her suit, she could feel the cold starting to burn. She had to fight through the fatigue that was threatening to overtake her, but when she heard Bee’s panting in her ear, she knew that she had to fight through it. 

If only Chat was there…he would have busted the hydrant open with Cataclysm, but he wasn’t and she had to fight through this. With one final push, the cap popped off. She shoved the fire hose into the valve, twisting the hose into place. Then she wrapped her yo-yo around the top of the hydrant using the leverage to open the valve. 

Bee dropped at the open end of the fire hose, grasping it. Or at least Ladybug thought that she was holding it, there was more of floating hose with a swirling mass of light around it. Bee rose into the air, pointing the hose at the orb of ice and snow. Technically Ladybug thought the water shouldn’t have come out of the hose that fast, but she was the lucky one. The water blasted forth with enough force to jolt Bee out of her vibrating so that she was visible as normal. With how cold the magician had already made it; the water began to freeze the dome at once. It only took a few moments and the dome was completely encased in ice. 

Ladybug sighed, looking between the hose that was still going and the dome of ice. She really hoped that she could fix all of this.

She tossed her yo-yo into the air, the bright red light spreading from it as it spun, “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

The ladybugs spread out, swirling around all of the ice and damage. The fire hose disappeared from Queen Bee’s hands. As the ladybugs flew, she could feel the warmth beginning to return to the air. No matter how many times she saw it, it was always amazing. The idea that she could do this, fix everything with just a word.

Or most things.

*

Chloe was pale, her blond hair cut almost to her skull. The explosion had burned off much of her hair, and when she hit the floor she had cracked her skull, blood matting against her hair. Bandages wrapped around her chest and a tube down her throat allowed her to breathe. 

Ladybug knew that it could have been worse, that Chloe could be dead right now. The doctors said that she would live, she would be scarred and because of the explosion she might not have the best eyesight anymore, but she would live.

She kept that in her mind as she sat at Chloe’s bedside, looking over the still body of the girl who had tried to save her life.

“You didn’t have to do that”, Ladybug whispered, laying her hand over Chloe’s, pressing her fingers against Chloe’s pulse, just to remind herself, “You’ve seen my fights. I’m almost in indestructible. You’re only human”

“She wanted to be like you”, Sabrina stood in the hospital room doorway, a bouquet of yellow roses held against her chest, “She adores you Ladybug, that’s all she ever wanted. To be like you”

That thought made her feel worse, that she was the reason that Chloe was almost dead in a hospital bed. Bile rose in her throat and she let out a tiny sob, she didn’t know if she was going to cry or scream. Maybe just throw up.

“I…I have to go”, she pushed the chair away from her, stumbling back into the window, “…I’m so sorry”

Sabrina nodded, a tear dropping into the roses, “Will you be back? She’d like to see you. When she wakes up”

There was an unspoken if to the end of that sentence. If she wakes up. If if If. The word bounced around in Ladybug’s head, “…I’ll come back”

*

Once they handed the magician over to the police, with a promise now that they had removed the source of his powers (an ugly tiny snow globe in his pocket), that he shouldn’t be able to do too much now. Magic needed a focus, a way to direct your abilities. The heroes had Miraculous, the magician had his snow globe. There were some people who were strong enough they didn’t need a focus, no words or scribbles on the ground. But he wasn’t one of them.

She wasn’t working forward to what they would have to do something someone who couldn’t be contained in a prison cell. Maybe… something she would rather not think about right now.  
Twisting the snow globe in her hand, she could swear that not only the snow was moving, but also the people inside it. The idea gave her a chill that ran down her spine. She dismissed it for the moment, hearing the telltale beep of her transformation running out.

She flew away from the scene, Ladybug already gone and landed far enough away that no one would see her transformation run out. The snow globe was still clutched in her hand, and Honni flew towards it the second she exited her jewel.

“We need to take this to Master Fu”, Honni’s eyes were narrowed and her tone low, she was a serious kwami, but more towards the mothering end of serious. She seemed… Chloe would never have thought to apply the word scared to god, no matter how tiny, but it almost seemed like there was fear in Honni’s eyes at a snow globe.

“Don’t we normally destroy this kind of thing? I mean it’s not like it’s going to hurt anybody without a magician behind it”, she twisted the tiny globe in her hand, sure that she could feel the cold just leaking off of it. She recalled her feeling earlier, that something or someone was moving within it.

Honni pressed her lips together, not looking Chloe in the eye. She wanted to tell her Chosen what was happening, but at the same time, Master Fu would have a better idea then she would. He could talk to the kids, make them understand what was happening.

“Honni?” Chloe whispered, reaching out for her kwami, “What’s going on?”

“Please. Let’s just. Talk to Fu”

*

It wasn’t until Marinette saw the news footage later that she realized there was something wrong with the magician. She had been so tired during the fight that it never accorded to her that he was anything other than just another jackass using magic he didn’t totally understand. Maybe he would have been happy to be an Akuma if Hawkmoth was still around, or maybe Hawkmoth was what inspired him to go looking for magic.

Laying on her couch, watching the footage, more because she couldn’t muster the energy to get up and change the channel than any vanity, she noticed a few things.  
Originally, she had assumed that he was wearing boots, ice themed asshole wearing boots made sense. But closer examination told her that they looked a lot more like paws then she was comfortable with. Not like how Chat’s boots looked like paws, like paws where his feet should be. White fur poking out from his pants, and the slight tilt of his feet that meant he was on his toes rather than the balls of his feet.

Then the end of the battle, when Bee took the snow globe form his pocket. Marinette had realized at that point that his hair and clothes had changed (he was actually a red head), but she hadn’t paid much attention to how. It was like snowflakes flying away from him, into the snow globe. The paws disappeared with the rest of his outfit and she was let reminded of one thing.  
When she untransformed. When Adrien untransformed.

Maybe she was just tired and imagining things. Plenty of magicians used magic to change their appearance, to look scary or just plain odd.   
She turned to Tikki, who was sitting on the arm of the couch enjoying her post battle cookies. The cookie was left abandoned on the arm of the couch and Tikki floated towards the TV, a grim expression on her tiny face.

Marinette felt sick to her stomach. Tikki saw it too.

“Is that…is it even possible?”

*

“Someone is making knock-off miraculous?” Chloe watched Master Fu turn the snow globe over in his hands, hands that she swore looked older every time she saw him, “…is that even possible?”  
Wayzz floated closer to the globe before pulling back with a look of disgust on his face, “Very Miss Chloe, and very bad. I’ve seen people try before, with minor spirits, a young kitsune, or a brownie”, he placed himself on the table, taking a sip of his tea, “But this…”

“It’s much too strong for that”, Fu tapped the glass, watching the snow rush around, “It will take time to know what kind of spirit is trapped. I would not say that it is a god, nothing like Honni or Wayzz,   
but a yeti is possible. Or a Yuki-onna. Something that should not be trapped”

“Aren’t the kwami trapped though?” Chloe’s hand went to her comb, running her fingers over the jewel, “I mean they’re inside the Miraculous”

Honni made an annoyed buzzing noise, “No no sweetie! We made the Miraculous”

“You…what?” For the first time since she had become a Holder, Chloe realized she knew nothing about the origins of her jewel.

*

The smell of the hospital assaulted her nose before anything else, it was a smell that she had become much too used to when her mother was dying. It smelled too clean, too much like medicine. Even the nurse’s office at school had given her the same feeling. While it might have been the scent of clean, to her it was always the scent of death. The scent of roses found her next, fresh ones. She couldn’t tolerate dead roses after her mother, it had been too hard to constantly clear the old flowers out of her hospital room and even after you did it still smelled like rotting flowers.

Chloe forced her eyes to open, just so she would know that she wasn’t in her mother’s hospital room. She wasn’t ten years old and watching her mother’s will to live drain from her eyes. Yellow roses on her besides, a bright spot in a room of muted colours. Did her father bring them? 

Then she remembered. Her father. Her father was the reason that she was here, at least partly. He had caused the Akuma and she had jumped in front of him to save Ladybug’s life. God, she hoped he was in jail, but knowing him it was more likely that he had already taken off without considering his daughter. Did he even know that she was alive?

She blinked back the tears, turning her head away from the flowers. She couldn’t look at those right now, honestly, she would have liked to just go back to sleep. Chloe brushed her hand across her lap, attempting to smooth out her blanket. Her hand knocked into a tiny wooden box that she was sure she hadn’t seen before. Maybe someone had left her a gift, maybe Adrien had gotten her some jewellery.  
Chloe’s arms were weak, but she managed to pull the box towards herself. Attempting to pull herself into a sitting position, she used her finger to trace the symbol on the top of the box. She knew enough from Adrien’s Mandarin lessons that it was Chinese, but she couldn’t begin to guess what it said.

She opened the box gently, smiling when she saw what was in it. A gorgeous comb, the top shaped like a bee and its wings. She reached out to touch it but before she could, a yellow light burst from the box. The light from into a ball of light, before it, transformed into a strange little creature. Its head was round, with black stripes on its head. Two little antennae dangled from its head and around its neck there was a little ruff of yellow fur. 

The thing opened its eyes, a startling bright blue without any pupils or whites. 

“Hello!” the little creature flew until they were nose to nose, “I’m Honni! How would you like to be a superhero?”

*

“We made them!” Honni announced again, flying in excited circles, “I suppose we never really explained that to you, did we?”

Wayzz shrugged, “It doesn’t always make sense to tell them, there’s a lot thing about magic and miraculous that tends to just confuse the issue. Some holders don’t even live long enough for us to need a history lesson”

Honni spun around, her paws on her hips, glaring down at the other kwami, “Don’t say that! It’s always horrible when our holders pass on. Especially when they die before their time”, she flew back to Chloe, pushing up against her holder’s cheek, “Can I tell my story now?”

“It’s not technically your story or my story. Tikki was more involved than either of us, being that she is Creation”, Wayzz said, waving a paw over his tea cup, swirling the steam up until it formed an orb. Slowly the orb cleared, showing the vague shape of a woman.

As she came into focus, it was clear that she wasn’t human. Her skin was a dark red, with little spots all over her arms and one large spot on her forehead. Two antennae were perched on her head, with flowers interwoven in her black hair. A pair of wings came from her shoulders, iridescent insect wings. Combined with the spots, it reminded Chloe of a ladybug.

“Tikki”, Honni said, a warm smile on her face as she looked at her fellow kwami, “Before we were little gods, we were a bit bigger”

Tikki was standing in front of a table, her fingers moving quickly as she shaped something out of metal. Chloe couldn’t see what it was, but she got the feeling it might be something Miraculous related. A man came into view, his skin pitch black. No, as she looked closer, he more than black, he was a void in the shape of a man that just sucked all of the light in. Cat ears wiggled on his head, and a tail grew from his back. He put his hands on Tikki’s shoulder, pressing a kiss against her temple.

“Plagg. Creation and Destruction have always been towards, counterbalancing each other. Without Plagg Tikki’s powers would over whelm the world, too much creation is just as bad as too much destruction”

Tikki held up what she was working on, a bracelet. A jade charm wrapped in silver, then through the middle was a length of hemp, “For Wayzz. Do you think he’ll like it?”

He wrapped his hand around the bracelet, stroking the charm. A silver ring sparkled on his finger, a green paw print glowing on the surface, “He’ll love it. He’d love it if you gave him a little man made out of leaves”, Plagg wiggled his fingers, wrapping one arm around Tikki’s waist, the other still holding the bracelet, “He’s your brother Bug, he loves you”

Wayzz smiled fondly, pressing his paw against the bracelet on Fu’s wrist, “They were a gift at first. For all of us, a gift to the gods who she called family. Tikki adored all of us, she was creation and luck and light, the light that we were all drawn too. Before you ask, I couldn’t tell you how many of us there are or were, not all of us became kwami and not all of us are still around today”

The image faded away, slowly replaced with a long table surrounded by gods of all colours and animal attributes. Tikki and Plagg were at the front of the table, flanked by a green man who had to be Wayzz and a fox eared woman. Wayzz was smiling politely as the fox woman waved her hands around, telling some grand story.

“We…we were happy”, Honni said a hint of longing in her voice, “But it wasn’t to last”

The image dragged along the table, colourful faces and gods passing by, all joyful, unaware of what was to come. Finally, the movement stopped a woman with hair so pale it almost glowed. A pair of   
white wings were folded against her back and a circlet perched on her forehead, a white gem at her brow. Beside her was another woman, with skin the colour of rust and hair shaved to her skull. The rust coloured woman had a small pair of round ears and her teeth were sharp, flashing as she spoke.

“Conflict. And Peace”, Honni whispered, sounding sad.

Conflict grasped her counterpart’s hand, but Peace pulled away. She pushed away from the table, with such force that her chair clattered to the floor. The gods around them looked on with concern, but Conflict shook her head. Peace pressed her lips together and stomped out of view. 

A shift and Peace was standing in front of a group of gods, her wings spread wide and the feathers fluffed up, “We created the humans! We gave them life, we made them more than they were. And what do they do? They disrespect us, they destroy our temples, they attack our people!”

“Peace’s child was killed”, Honni said, “A demigod child of her and a human that she adored. She loved that child more than anything, even more then Conflict. When the child died, when her human husband killed her in a fit of rage, we would not allow her to grant her child immortality. That was simply not our way”, Honni’s voice started to break, her wide eyes filling with tears, “We had all lost children”

Wayzz picked up where she left off, “She decided that the humans must be eliminated. That they could no longer be trusted and we should simply start over from the beginning. That was the only way we could have peace”

Peace stood in front of the table, her wings wide as she spoke, “We can do better! We were young when we created these humans, they are not all that we can do! We can start over!”  
A few of the gods murmured, looking towards each other. Seemingly a few agreed with what she was saying, but most looked horrified. Tikki’s mouth was set in a thin line, her hand clutched in Plagg’s.   
Neither of them looked happy about Peace’s announcement.

Conflict got to her feet, pain written across her face, “You can’t do this! How is this peace? How is this what you are meant to do? The humans are our children, we must nurture them, allow them to grow. They are not like us, they can change!”

“How can they change when you still exist!” Peace shot back, her pale face blooming red with rage, “Conflict and violence, that’s why my daughter had to die! Why do we even need you?”  
Conflict shrank back, her ears flat against her head and her eyes filled with tears. 

“That’s enough!” Tikki slammed her hands on the table, “We all know that you are hurting Peace, we understand the pain of losing a child. But you cannot act like this. Conflict does not force anyone’s hand, she simply keeps the balance in the world. Sometimes that means that horrible things happen, but without balance, the world would fall into disarray. You know this”, Tikki spread her hands, “We all know this. Please Peace”

“Humans are a cancer! And I will show you all!” Peace stomped out of the room, leaving a distressed looking Conflict and a room full of on edge gods.

“Not all of us have a perfect other half, but for those of us that do, it’s an unbreakable bond. Closer then siblings, more than lovers, your perfect match. The way Peace spoke about Conflict, the implication that she need not exist… It broke Conflict’s heart”, Honni whispered, Conflict’s face filling their view, “What Tikki said was true, Conflict didn’t make the husband kill Peace’s daughter, she only caused the balance between her force and Peace’s. But a grieving mother doesn’t see that. All she sees is her dead child and someone to blame”

“It’s like cutting off a limb, it may not kill you, but you will always feel that there should be something there”, Wayzz said, “But more than that, it means you are rejecting the balance of the world. That you are turning against your fellow gods and saying that you know better than everyone else. At the time, we thought it was the ultimate insult”

Peace held her hands to her head, slowly removing the circlet that she wore. A woman knelt in front of her, her head bowed. Peace smiled, placing the circlet on the woman’s head. The scene filled Chloe with a sense of wrongness, from what she understood the circlet was a gift from Tikki and not meant to be given away. A bright light flashed and Peace was gone, leaving only the woman and her new gift.

“The first miraculous”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conflict is a wolverine and Peace is a dove, they don't have names like the other kwami because *shrug emoji*


End file.
